Today we visited Rwanda. As this was just a day trip from Bunyonyi, we were on a fairly tight schedule to make it across the boarder, spend a day visiting a few sites, then getting back across the border into our Uganda accommodation. The drive into Rwanda took a couple of hours, and it quickly became clear the driver was in a rush. They were absolutely flying down the highways, taking corners far too quickly (we heard the tyres screetching a number of times), and although we joked about it in the car, I think all of us were at least in part legitimately concerned about having an accident. But we survived, and made it into the capital of Kigali.

The first stop was a grim experience at the Genocide Museum. I’d only just recently learned about the Rwandan Genocide of the early 1990s, and found a podcast to listen to on the drive over. The gravity of the atrocities quickly dawned on me, which only became more apparent as we entered the museum. The museum was a horrific account of what happened in Rwanda during the genocide against the Tutsi people during the war, and I found myself wanting to learn more and more about what actually happened, the history behind it and the impact on Rwanda and African history since. I learned about the UN’s involvement during this period, and ended up reading a few books written by the UN General in charge of the peacekeeping mission at the time, after I returned back home from the trip.

We were all in a sombre mood after the museum, but still had a few more sites to hit up - mostly related to the genocide still. Later we visited the spot where Belgian UN Commandos were killed, and then had lunch at Hotel des Mille Collins. The hotel became famous after 1,268 people took refuge inside the building during the genocide, and the story of the hotel and its manager at that time, Paul Rusesabagina, was later used as the basis of the film Hotel Rwanda in 2004.

In Rwanda I bought a football kit for Dad, and a kitchen magnet which still sits on my fridge and reminds me of my experiences in Rwanda, and the history of its genocide. My little time in Rwanda left an outsized impression on me, where I become increasingly curious to learn more about just how tragic the genocide was. It was (and is) hard to get my head around how we as a species can turn so dark and inflict such unspeakable horrors upon each other. After reading Shake Hands with the Devil by Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, I watched the film Hotel Rwanda, and then read Dallaire’s second book about the crippling PTSD he experienced following his time in Rwanda. It still fascinates and saddens me, which is why I’ll never forget my time in Rwanda.